Necessity is the mother of invention

THE proverb, ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ is timeless and without season. It means “when the need for something becomes essential, you are forced to find ways of getting or achieving it.” In looking around society, there are numerous needs and corresponding opportunities vital to our economic independence. And whereas necessity is often seen as arising from immediate, deprived needs, those with futuristic outlooks can also adequately predict man’s evolving needs and plan for them.

There is a national conversation that money, local and foreign, is not circulating and the dollar is less strong, compared to the corresponding period last year. While in our society it is often tempting to engage in finger-pointing, though not necessarily a bad thing, taking proactive approaches to challenging moments is what helps society to grow and develop. For instance, a significant amount of foreign currency is used to import goods that can be produced here.  Reduction in the circulation of foreign currency could necessitate acts to buffer and conserve.

Local production, in addition to creating employment and other indigenous opportunities, ensures the society’s distinct taste and identity of its products in the global market. Niche marketing could also be explored and exploited. Diverting foreign currency used for consumer goods could aid savings to make further investments through purchase of production equipment/machinery and the delivery of improved services in areas such as education and health.

The acquired taste for foreign products, though in a global economy, cannot be faulted, at the same time one cannot ignore that being users of items without seeking to be producers stymies growth and development of self and country. In the competitive environment, Guyana has the capacity not only to produce the imported plantain chips, fried channa, onions and potatoes, but also to be exporters of them.

For instance, the so-called foreign white potatoes and white onions were grown and harvested here. The society should have ensured further development of these projects, the establishment of synergies between the state and farming communities, to the stage where these are available for markets, local and foreign.
Where Guyana’s productive economy once suffered through party politics in that sections of the society were encouraged not to participate, lest it be construed as giving legitimacy to a particular government, such archaic thinking has no place in the 21st century.

Many of the foods Guyana can produce are in global demand. Any notion that cultivating and consuming local products is symptomatic of poverty, ignores nutritive value and revenue-earning capacity. At the same time, seeking to capitalise on available opportunities would recognise the need to reduce wastage and spoilage, which could be facilitated with closer collaboration between government and private investments.

Guyanese have the capacity to be visionary, but where the smothering of visionary leadership and thinking exists, the economic element of the society will continue to operate below expectations. There are things that can be done that do not require foreign aid and the expending of foreign currency to import. It is also to society’s benefit to recognise and appreciate that continued dependency could never be in its best interest.

Development is not devoid of risk-taking, acceptance that mistakes are part of the process, and being prepared to stay the course until the goal is achieved. Evidence of this is seen in the first team that succeeded in its journey into space to the development of peanut into a phenomenal world industry.  Where in the embryonic stages, had those who pioneered these projects given up, man would not have been better understanding of the universe and/ or able to capitalise on the opportunities therein.

Development or the absence of it is widespread.  Whereas one may have the means to build a big house next to the neighbour living in a dilapidated building, having to traverse potholed streets in surroundings littered with debris, this uneven development impacts and affects the lives of all within the environs. The absence of recognising the importance of community too has to be addressed. Shifting behaviour is reliant on shifting thinking from that of dependency to appreciating positive change comes through self-reliance and inter-dependency.

What Guyanese need to re-cultivate and develop is that pioneering spirit, instead of settling for being relegated to perpetual consumers and traders. Important to this is getting out of the dependency syndrome that expects government to do everything, to that where government fosters the enabling environment through incentives and knowledge, to make things possible.

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